One Night (original 2003; edition 2003)

I didn't expect the poetry, but soon found myself swept away. My heart hurt for all of the parents, young and old, but luckily, the author saved me from any true tragedy. ( )

It was a good book over all but kinda dull. The way she wrote it was interesting and unique. She added things that at first sounded unnecessary then in the end it all fell in to place. ( )

What teens say:

One Night is about a group of guys who are friends and have parties all the time when their parents aren't home in Australia. Their names are Gabe, Al, and Bram. Al never bathes, drinks way too much, never pays attention in school, and his parents’ relationship seems on the rocks. His job for the parties is to get the music and drinks. Bram lives in a trailer park with his mother, his dad left them penniless, and he always seems to be in the background at the parties doing nothing except staring. His part in making the parties is to take pictures of everything in the house, so when the party is done, they can put everything exactly where it was and no one will ever know. Gabe is one of the main characters. His mother ran away and his dad remarried. His job is to collect all the girls for the party. At one party, Gabe sees this girl. Her name is Helen. Helen is the other main character. She has a little sister, used to be deformed, and her dad thinks her mom shouldn't ever state her opinion. Gabe and Helen ended up spending the whole night together. Later, Helen finds out she's pregnant, but Gabe has no idea. Her dad can't believe it, so she ends up moving out, drops out of school, and gets a job cleaning at a cafe. Later, Helen has her baby. The lady, Mrs. Evans, who runs the boarding house Helen stays in loves the baby. The granddaughter of Mrs. Evans is a drug addict and runs away from the boarding house and since Mrs. Evans is paralyzed, Helen tells her she'll find her. So she goes to Gabes' house and leaves the baby with a note and knocks on the door and runs away. That night Gabe was having a party at his house, so when he finds out this child is his, he tries to stop the party, but that doesn't work. During the party, Al, who's drunk, takes the baby, and tries to throw the baby thinking it's a football. After the party, and Gabe's dad and step mom get home, he tells them of all the parties and girls. After that party, Gabe's life, Al's life, Bram's life, and Helen's life changes. I really liked this book because it was written in poems, but the poems altogether tell a story. Though you can read this book within two hours, you can totally connect with the characters and understand their feelings. I would recommend this to any older teenager because it's great.

I like the storyline of this book, but I thought it was confusing that the forms switched from person to person. It would give a point of view and then a poem about anything from the 3rd person. The story of the girl being pregnant and the problems it causes was good.